Gaming peripherals were a very large market in 2012, with Cherry switches suddenly becoming a household name and with gamers actually arguing over the best type of switch for keyboards. That was not the only big change for gaming peripherals as this year has seen many companies make a serious effort to make a name as a provider of gaming mice and established companies adding new features to their existing products. If you have had trouble deciding which mouse best fits your needs, this roundup at MadShrimps might be of help. They've included the CMStorm Sentinel Advance II, the Cyborg R.A.T. 7, SteelSeries' Sensei RAW, the Roccat Kone XTD, Razer's Imperator 2012 and the Logitech G300; one of which should suit your gaming needs.

"In this group test I will focus on a specific feature and gaming goal to reduce the variables as we go on a quest to find some of the best First-Person-Shooter wired mouse out there. To properly gauge the performance of my new gaming rodents I spend several weeks with each to get to know the ins and outs, their features and deliver a good dose of my personal opinions on these mice."

Introduction, Design And Features

The gaming keyboard market seems to rigorously follow a common rule of consumer products - more is more. If a keyboard is for gamers it should include lots of fancy gaming related features, and the more that are included, the more hardcore the keyboard. Macro buttons, customizable back-lighting and LCD screens are all features of modern gaming keyboards–and you don’t see many companies going the other direction.

But there are products that buck the trend. One of them is the CMStorm QuickFire Rapid, a mechanical gaming keyboard that became available in North America earlier this year. Unlike most competitors, the QuickFire rapid cuts features instead of adding them. Back-lighting? Macro keys? You’re kidding me, right? This keyboard doesn’t even include a numpad.

Cooler Master (the company behind CMStorm) has not cut out the features that matter, however. This keyboard comes with Cherry MX keys (the blue variant, in this case) and also supports PS/2 connections for full NKRO. For those who’ve seen the light of day recently, this gobbly gook means the QuickFire Rapid scans key activation individually and therefore can detect new key activations even when other keys are still depressed. It’s a feature hardcore gamers love because of their tendency to press multiple keys simultaneously.

Cutting back on unneeded features has a notable side effect–it reduces price. Currently this keyboard is available for $79.99 at retail or as low as $65 on Amazon.com. Only Razor’s bare-bones version of the BlackWidow keyboard sells for less, and it only beats the QuickFire by $5 dollars.

So can you really buy a decent gaming keyboard for $65, and will you miss the numpad? Let’s find out.

The CMStorm Xornet attempts to give you the performance of a full sized gaming mouse in a form small enough to be easily portable. It still features the 2000 DPI Storm Tactical Optical Sensor that its bigger relatives sport as well as programmable buttons. Red & Blackness Mods had some trouble getting used to the shape of the mouse, it is smaller lengthwise but much taller than other mice in the CMStorm lineup. If you find yourself on the road and in need of a gaming mouse, for $30 CoolerMaster might have the perfect solution.

"Corsair has recently entered the mouse/keyboard gaming peripherals market and decided to make a good impression. The M90 mouse features multiple programmable buttons for RTS/MMO gamers, contains an aluminum chassis for increased durability and comes with the Avago Technologies ADNS-9500 LaserStream Gaming Sensor."